I finally tried a coffee from The Bald Barista, and can confirm that yes…it lives up to the hype. Buzz, take a bow. I truly recommend making the walk up to Aungier Street and trying one for yourself.
The Sweetest Thing, RIGHT at the bus stop on Bachelors Walk is also worth of note for an incredible Hot Chocolate.
While one of these two can expect to see me dip into the shrinking wallet once or twice a week (my ma bought me a Subbuteo flask two weeks back in an attempt to stop me spending so much money on coffee out), I was recently delighted to spot a €1 coffee on offer again. You might remember we posted about Nude, which was offering a take away or sit in coffee for a quid. Nude is dead and gone. The ever-changing convenience shop next to Molly Malone is offering a €1 take away coffee or hot chocolate. The coffee is obviously nothing to write home about, but hey- it’s a quid.
Anyone got anywhere to recommend for a good coffee in Dublin? Anywhere cheap(ish) or with decent offers?
From ‘The Road Before Me (Began Behind)’ by J. Sean Callan (2005)
The neon Bovril advertisement which once stood high upon a building at the corner of Lower Grafton Street and College Green us fondly remembered by a generation of Dubliners. Apparently young kids, city visitors and tipplers after a night out often went out of their way to head down by Trinity to view this extraordinary wonder as it was unique in that each of its letters lit up in a different colour.
Samuel Beckett’s collection of short prose More Pricks Than Kicks (1934) depicts protagonist Belacqua Shuah’s perception of the misty neon streetscape of College Green outside of Trinity College Dublin:
Bright and cheery above the strom of the Green, as though coached by the Star of Bethlehem, the Bovril sign danced and danced through its seven phases.
The TCD Miscellany made the following humorous observation in a short poem entitled Epitaph in 1951:
Here Lies one who met his fate
Just outside the College Gate;
By darkness saw he sights suburb,
With eyes aloft he left the kerb;
As from beneath the ‘bus they picked him
They murmured ‘Boveril’s latest victim’
Éamonn Mac Thomáis in his classic memoir Me jewel and darlin’ Dublin (1983) wrote that
The first illuminated sign I remember seeing in Dublin was the Bovril sign high over College Green. What a spectacle it provided as it burst into a rainbow of colours.
Does anyone know when the sign was taken down? If you have memories or pictures of the old Bovril sign, let us know.
Old Dublin tram preserved in Collins Barracks, Dublin. (Photo credit - hoffopolis)
Henry Moore, Earl of Drogheda (? – 1675) thought so much of himself that he used the six words of his title when naming six streets in Dublin’s North Inner city – “Henry Street”, “Moore Street”, “Earl Street” “Of Lane” (now Henry Place) and “Drogheda Street” (now O’Connell Street)
Henry Street was purchased by Moore in 1614 from James Fitzgerald, Earl of Desmond, to whom it had been granted when St. Mary’s Abbey was dismantled. It was later sold to Luke Gardiner (c.1690 – 1775) in the early 18th century as was Earl Street. Drogheda Street originally extended only from present day Parnell Street to Abbey Street. Luke Gardiner also purchased it in the mid 1770s, he demolished the houses on the west side and created a street 1,050 feet long and 150 feet wide. This was laid out with a central mall, fifty feet wide, decorated with obelisks and trees. (Information gathered from Paul Clerkin’s Dublin Street Names)
I certainly think Henry Moore certainly wins the prize of having the most street names in Dublin named after one person?
On a more serious note, if you’re looking for Justin Bebo, he’s staying in The Morrison Hotel. God help the staff.
The clean-cut teen star is living up to his whiter-than-white reputation by warning staff at his top secret five-star hotel to lock up the mini bar and lay on the milk shakes.
On the subject of Mná na hÉireann, the Alice Milligan exhibition in the National Library is something I intend to pop back to.
This iconic and fascinating journalist, political activist, feminist and human rights campaigner was one of 13 children born in 1866 into a middle class Protestant Unionist family living in Co Tyrone. She studied history and literature at King’s College London; taught herself Irish; became a staunch Irish nationalist and supporter of the 1916 Rising; was hailed as the ‘infant nurse’ of the biggest Irish political movement in the 1920s, and was a tireless human rights campaigner as well as an organiser of the Irish language movement in Ulster.
At some point this week, I will get back to Against The Grain. It’s 2 for 1 dinner special on a Tuesday night looks appealing, but the foreign beer even more so.
If I can skip out of college a bit early Wednesday, I’ll get along to the screening of ‘So Hot Right Now’ at NCAD. More than anything, I’m curious.
Somewhere? at The Workmans Wednesday night is a tempter too. Basically, picture our ska night upstairs and imagine the very opposite of it. Indie floor fillers and three quid cocktails, there’s no pride in being assisted into a taxi. Who could ever accuse this blog of glorifying alcohol?
On Thursday, I want to see what Ticket Thursday is all about.Can I actually get a good deal off the back of my pre-paid bus ticket? I’ll tell you on Thursday night.
On Friday night, I’ll be in Inchicore(Inchie, Inchie, Inchicoreeee) for the League of Ireland clash between Saint Patrick’s Athletic and the Almost-In-Dublin Bray Wanderers. You know how the League works, it needs money and local support and no matter what corner of the city you inhabit we’d encourage you to get down to your local side.
At some point during the week, I will hopefully get down to the Dublin Eye to see if it is as crap as it looks.
It looks really, really crap in fairness:
Throughout the week, I’ll be ringing the Dublin City Council like an old man giving out about Fianna Fail/Fine Gael/dodgy independents posters that haven’t been removed yet. You should too. Hit ’em in the pocket.
I’m currently working on a project on Dublin in the 1930s, centered around the inner city and the emergence of a far-right and the religious crusades against all forms of ‘sin’ in the capital. I recently shared this 1934 anti-fascist leaflet distributed at a republican demonstration at College Green.
The news report below, from The Irish Press (May 09, 1933), is pretty typical for the period. The man involved was indeed at a ‘foreign dance’ event, but he only stayed an hour or so, and he wasn’t dancing, merely observing.
‘So Hot Right Now’ will be shown this Wednesday, at 6pm up at the canteen of NCAD on Thomas Street. I don’t know much about graffiti, beyond knowing I prefer painted walls (with something to say…) to blank ones and Dublin is certainly a colourful city.
So Hot Right Now hasn’t been available since 2006, and the footage in the documentary was taken over 3 years.
I don’t know how I’ve never stumbled across oldfootballshirts.com before. I only recently saw a picture of myself in a horrific oversized Saint Patrick’s Athletic Autoglass effort from the 90s and realised that back then, kits in the league were pretty ugly at best. A quick flick through a few old programmes confirmed this.
Over on Old Football Shirts, they’ve got a pretty sizeable selection of kits from Dublin League of Ireland squads.
New here? Once a month we visit five Dublin pubs, give them a quick once over, and review them here. Simple.
This pub crawl was made all the better by the fact we’ve decided to attempt to couple all future crawls with a cultural event. We’d met up earlier than usual on the Sunday in question to take in a walking tour of Grangegorman Military Cemetery, and as such were feeling pretty chuffed with ourselves. Pints are great, granted- but they’re always nicer after a day out.
Anyway, this months pubs….
Right opposite the Ha’penny Bridge, I was always amazed by the fact a large premises at the entrance to Merchants Arch was allowed sit vacant for so long. Once an Abrakebabra, and a rowdy one at that, it must be one of those city centre business premises doomed to failure in any guise I thought. Now, with the arrival of the Merchants Arch Bar, maybe all has changed.
This pub is one of those pubs where you have to make your way past a young woman with a menu in hand to get in. In post Celtic Tiger Dublin, it’s a pretty standard fixture with any Temple Bar establishment. While I’ve heard the food here is excellent, I’ve a good feed in me already and besides my student pockets don’t allow it (PRIORITIES), and a round of pints are the height of it. The interior of the pub is beautiful, I’d compare it almost to the downstairs of the nearby Workman’s Club. Minimal and classic. There is no clutter here on the walls, like in the ‘done up’ (read: completely ruined) Eamonn Doran’s only a short distance away. There, it’s all Michael Collins, Shamrocks and the little people.
There is rugby on the telly. I know absolutely nothing about rugby. I know one thing though, this is loud. Just too loud to let conversation flow freely. Despite the bar being quite busy for the time of day, nobody is really watching the game. The pints arrive quickly and are worthy of a thumbs up. All in all, this new venture gets our support and I think I’ll be back. It’s hardly the only pub in Dublin where the telly gets more priority than it maybe should.
I’m delighted to see something good done with this premises, it was a shame to see a building right next to the Ha’penny Bridge rotting away.
We’re off to The Lotts next. This is the pub which famously got behind the Mexicans at the last World Cup, talk about a lucky selection.
I really enjoyed the film Between The Canals, it arrived last year for the Jameson festival but seemed to have gone into hiding then. At long last, it’s getting a run at the IFI, with tickets available over here. the influence of films like Le Haine is clear, but Between The Canals has that great Dublin wit at its heart and is right up there with Intermission in my eyes in terms of presenting a Dublin that exists below the surface.
On March 19th, there will be a discussion on the film at the IFI, which is free to attend.
Director of Between the Canals Mark O’Connor and actor Peter Coonan will join Tony Tracy (NUIG) at the IFI on March 19th at 12.00 to discuss the trials of shooting a micro-budget feature in Dublin’s inner city over 12 days with a largely non-acting cast. This event is FREE but ticketed so please call IFI Box Office on 01 679 3477 to reserve your seat.
This is incredible listening. It’s a recent RTE radio documentary on the Tallaght dogfight between Conor Lenihan and Mr. Tallaght Charlie O’Connor, both running on the Fianna Fáil ticket in Dublin South West.
More than the dog fight between the two candidates however, it’s incredible to hear the reaction from people on the doors. It’s a level of anger that surely even the Soldiers of Destiny were surprised by. On Monday night, RTE will broadcast ‘The Naked Election’, a show following several politicians on the campaign trail. It will include two from the capital, namely Leo Varadkar of Fine Gael from Dublin West, and Paul Gogarty of the Greens from Dublin Mid West. If anything like this radio programme, fireworks can be expected. On the telly ad, Gogarty says that he is “..worn down from two years of abuse from people.”
If you have the 41 minutes to spare, give the radio documentary a click.
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 